The future is bright for Hawley Primary School following the official opening of its new building.
Replacing Hawley Infants School, which was based at its former Camden Town site for more than 100 years, the new Hawley Road building will house ‘all-through’ primary school for up to 210 pupils, with a 26-place nursery.
The infants school had outgrown its previous site, with no space for expansion and no linked junior school for pupils to attend once they reached the age of seven. As well as being restricted to infant pupils only, the previous building was also in need of modernisation and ongoing investment.
The school currently has 176 children up to age nine and these pupils, who would previously have had to go to a new school when they turned seven, will now be able to stay on at Hawley until they are 11.
The new building includes improved classrooms around a central courtyard area. Each classroom has its own outdoor space, including rooftop terraces, and there is also hard play space, a multi-games area and garden.
Headteacher Anne Fontaine, who was head of the infants school for 17 years before moving to the new primary school building, said: “Our older pupils are enjoying being in Year 4 now and they will be our first Year 6 class. It is lovely to be growing into an all-through primary school and seeing the children progress with us instead of leaving at age seven.”
Cllr Georgia Gould, leader of Camden Council added: “I am delighted that the new Hawley Primary School has such a fantastic new building. Parents will be pleased that the new site is able to educate their children from nursery age, right through to when they’re old enough for secondary school. Camden has some of the best primary schools in the country and I’m certain that Hawley Primary is going to educate and inspire children for many years to come.”
The project has also converted the neighbouring Grade II-listed former Georgian home for school use and the old decorative iron gates from the infants school have been relocated to the new school.
The new building, which first opened for pupils in November 2016, won the ‘outstanding design award’ in last year’s Camden business awards for the school’s architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.
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